Celtic Dreams

In 1994, Irish soprano Mèav Nì Mhaolchatha (pronounced Mäev Nee Wail-cot-ha) became a featured soloist with Anùna, Michael McGlynn's Dublin-based choral ensemble. Her star rose after the group toured with the Riverdance troupe and quickly achieved international renown. Then, in 2005, an extravaganza called Celtic Woman debuted, and its five female singers---Méav plus Chloë, Lisa, Órla, and Máiréad---followed its massive success with a torrent of solo albums: Méav’s eponymous release (2002) and Silver Sea (2004) are only two examples thereof. These offered still more Enya-esque, mostly ethereal ballads from Irish and other sources: all very effective in their way but pure mass-market show-biz and best avoided by die-hard traditional music fans. But the material on the current reissue dates back to the Riverdance era and is another matter entirely. It showcases thirteen tracks recorded by Anùna during the original Riverdance sessions, the vast majority with Méav singing lead. The stately and elegiac program harbors recollections of composers Edward MacDowell and more recently, Patrick Cassidy, or even Ralph Vaughn-Williams, who so often incorporated British folk and early music sources into his works. --Christina Roden